A Mysterious Ground Shift Returns to Yellowstone, and Advanced Tech Is Helping to Monitor It

While remarkable hydrothermal features, like bubbling hot springs and explosive geysers, are common at Yellowstone National Park, other events largely go unseen. In 2025, researchers saw the return of a unique event called the Norris Uplift Anomaly (NUA) — a ground-shifting feature that researchers are gaining a better look at.

The NUA is an area about 18 miles across within the park that is experiencing deformation — a change in the surface, typically caused by volcanic activity beneath the ground. In this case, researchers observed an uplift of about 5 inches in the area that would come to be known as the NUA.

“What’s pretty amazing in my opinion is that we can detect these changes quite clearly,” says Michael Poland, the Scientist-in-Charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.

What Is the Norris Uplift Anomaly?

Researchers first noticed the anomaly between 1996 and 2004 along the north caldera rim near Norris Geyser Basin.

Park scientists believe that magma accumulation about 9 miles below the surface was the cause, though that is not the only thing that can cause deformation.

After 2004, the NUA subsided by about 3 inches and then remained nearly flat until about 2013, when researchers noticed it began to rise again.

It remained like this until 2020 before falling again. Experts noted some activity around 2022, but it wasn’t until 2025 that researchers claimed the NUA had returned.

Read More: Yellowstone Is One of the World’s Largest Magmatic Systems – And It May be Missing a Key Volcanic Gas

What Causes The NUA?

Magma or fluids shifting underground typically causes deformation, which can occur at nearly all volcanic sites and even result in dramatic landscape changes. According to a report from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), the deformation that occurred near Norris Geyser Basin between 1996 and 2004 was likely caused by magma accumulation about 9 miles beneath the ground.

However, when the area again began to show signs of deformation between 2013 and 2020, park scientists believed that the accumulation and release of water may have been responsible for the activity. According to the YVO, the water may have come from the magma associated with the NUA, as magma can dissolve water and gases as it begins to rise.

Park scientists noted that although 2025 was a relatively low earthquake year at the park, with only 1,113 earthquakes compared with the annual average of about 1,500 to 2,500, there was an uptick in seismic activity near the NUA.

How Is the NUA Measured?

According to the YVO, occurrences like the NUA are common in the park; it’s just that researchers can only detect them with more advanced technology.

The technology, which includes semi–permanent and permanent GPS stations in the park, can help record subtle shifts in seismic activity. According to the YVO, the semi-permanent GPS stations are placed in the field every spring or early summer and then collected in the fall. Their data cannot be transmitted, so researchers can only observe it after they’ve been collected.

These GPS tools can track ground deformation to the millimeter, according to the YSO, and the portable GPS tools are less invasive and destructive to the park. They are also great for monitoring densely forested areas, like where the NUA is located.

Another tool scientists use in the park is the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) — satellite images that can detect how the ground shifts and changes. According to the YSO, InSAR detected a shift in the caldera between October 2024 and October 2025, similar to the patterns observed in 1996 and 2004.

“We’re talking about the ground rising and falling by an inch. And we have multiple techniques that can detect and characterize the deformation,” Poland says. “It speaks to how expanded monitoring and advances in technology have improved our understanding of how volcanoes work — Yellowstone in particular.”

Read More: Seismic Activity Shakes Up Microbes Deep Under Yellowstone Lake

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